Jigsaw Activity on Collaboration

I. Introduction: What do we know (or believe) about classroom collaboration?

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What do we already know about classroom collaboration?

Type of Group Activity	Concerns a Teacher may have.	Strengths	How doe the group support learning?
Team problem solving, classwork tasks.	Loafers	Exposure to other learning styles, ways of knowing	Individual strengths mixed.
Lab Groups (individual writeups	Low productivity	Socialization, (Cooperation, collaboration, respect for differences)	Learning by teaching others. (sense making.)
Project Groups (notes, etc, + synthesis activity)	Chit Chat	Creativity	Benefit from multiple perspectives.
	Dominant Voice
	Groupthink

II. Step 1: Build Expertise

In groups of three, read a portion of an article about collaboration. After Everyone in your group has read the article, prepare a summary of as much of the knowledge in your excerpt as you can. Post these summaries in the spaces below:

Once you have recorded the knowledge, decide on the three most important ideas your reading, and make them bold or set them apart in some way.

III. Step 2: Teach Peers

Now regroup so that each group has a person from each of the previous groups. Your task is to take turns teaching your fellow group members about your excerpt, focusing on what your "expert" group were the main points.

IV. Step 3: Apply New Knowledge

As a class, we'll apply what we've learned to some common teaching challenges related to collaboration.

After we're done: View Collaboration Synthesis Page

Jigsaw - Learning with Peers Article